Ostertag is a fantastic producer, can’t imagine there being any rush but for sure, give one a go and share the note!
Depends how poor the wine list is…if it’s a choice between Lageder Pinot Grigio and a bunch of generic CA/OR whites that sound like subdivisions I’ll buy the Lageder every time.
Gravner’s pinot grigio is worth a look.
You mean the ones you have tried…
Also Radikon’s, although in this style I prefer Ribolla Gialla. The Gris is a very cool wine though.
I never choose to drink Pinot Grigio. Any Italian winery that makes Pinot Grigio almost certainly makes other, more interesting white wines. (Pinot Bianco, for starters.)
Also, Otto’s comments above are spot on. Heroic efforts are made by producers in the Alto Adige to produce decent crisp Pinot Grigio (mostly for export, I think) but I would be looking elsewhere for either daily drinking or more serious whites. I know of no Italian PG that can compete with the more serious examples from Alsace.
I feel that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
While Pinot Grigio is far from the greatest white variety grown in Italy, saying that all Italian Pinot Grigios are anonymous and uninspiring is either ignorant or just plain wrong.
Sure, basically all Pinot Grigio wines from Veneto, Sicily and those parts of Friuli closest to Venezia are the parts where they churn out insipid, flavorless swill and those are very much anonymous and uninspiring. However, Alto Adige, Aosta Valley and parts of Friuli closer to Slovenia make really impressive, complex and concentrated wines no-one in their right mind would call anonymous or uninspiring.
I’d love to know if you’ve ever really tasted a Pinot Grigio from solid Italian producers, because calling all Italian Pinot Grigio wines lousy after just a handful of poor examples sounds like calling all California Cabs anonymous and uninspiring after having tasted a handful of $20 Cabs from the Central Valley.
Yes, I have tasted “no no, this is the GOOD” Pinot Grigio from Collio, just like I’ve tasted “no no, this is the GOOD” Prosecco from Valdobbiadene. They are what they are, and I am comfortable stating that Pinot Grigio does not make world-class fine wine. You may think otherwise - I wouldn’t call you “ignorant” for saying so, though.
Yet there’s a fine line saying you don’t find Pinot Grigio interesting or to you liking or Pinot Grigio is incapable of making world-class fine wine as one can make nothing but anonymous, uninspiring wine out of it.
Hopefully you understand my point of view if you replace “Pinot Grigio” with, say, Napa Cab, Champagne or Bordeaux from the above sentence.
I think the Pinot Grigio from the areas you mentioned is still anonymous and uninspiring, just less so. 
Asking for a crisp light great Pinot Grigio is like asking for a lush, buttery great Chablis.
Sean, have you ever tried the Unterebner bottling from Tramin. It’s not cheap, but at least IMO, it is one serious white wine.
Pinot Grigio, we call it Ruländer or Grauburgunder in Germany, needs a certain ripeness, otherwise it will be very neutral, uninteresting and smell and taste almost nothing.
When it´s really ripe it will never be a light, crisp, lively wine, but a wine of substance with a certain heaviness (NO, it doesn´t need any residual sugar), depth, complexity and aging potential.
It can be a good company for certain foods, like carp, several pasta (with blue cheese) and I especially like it with fried chicken.
The best Pinot Gris are imho not from Northern Italy but from Alsace, Austria and Germany (Baden, Pfalz).
30 years ago Blue Nun and Liebfraumilch had a large portion of the population feeling the same way about Riesling. 15 years ago, that prejudice was still common both at the restaurant and in the winery.
My cellar says that I prefer Riesling to Pinot Gris, so I am in no way stating a preference for Gris. But as Charlie Fu said on another thread-it’s producer, producer, producer.
For myself, it seems that great producers start with great sites.
Agreed with everything you said - except I can’t remember ever having an interesting white Pinot Gris (/Grauburgunder) from Austria. I’ve had some quite memorable skin-contact versions (Meinklang’s Graupert and Wenzel’s Wild+Free), but nothing particularly noteworthy vinified as white. Any suggestions?
Re: Northern Italy - I don’t think most Italian Pinot Gris wines can challenge the best Alsatian and German ones. I just think that Northern Italy (bar Veneto) produces the best Pinot Gris wines in Italy. However, the best Italian Pinot Grigios do come quite close after Alsace and Germany.
I´m not a Pinot Gris specialist or lover (I prefer Riesling, GV, SB most of the time), but there are excellent Austrian PG from:
Sattlerhof/Pfarrweingarten, Harkamp/Oberburgstall, Lackner-Tinnacher Reserve, Gross/Nussberg, Hitzberger/Pluris, R.Pichler/Hochrain, Bründelmayr/Spiegel
and many more
I, too, prefer Riesling (and - occasionally - GV, and - very rarely - a well made SB) over PG, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for well-made PG and thus am interested in tasting exceptional examples.
I’m familiar with Sattlerhof, R. Pichler and Bründlmayer - although I haven’t tasted their renditions of PG - and enjoy very much the styles of them, especially Sattlerhof and Bründlmayer. Probably I need to keep my eyes open if I happen to come across any of these Ried bottlings. Thanks.
Hirtzberger’s grauburgunder is very nice.
Also Heidi Schrock.